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Mark Huising

@huisinglab.bsky.social

420 followers 240 following 93 posts

Prof@UCDavis, Islet researcher, teacher of physiology and immunology, runner. Climate advocate and active transportation proponent. Cargobike Dad. Views mine.

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Reposted by Mark Huising

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 19h

Newsom just signed an excellent law that will help fund the widespread transition from natural gas boilers to industrial heat pumps.

Now sign SB79, Gavin.

California Passes Law To Help Modernize Manufacturing in a Win for Jobs and Clean Air

AB 1280 establishes funding mechanism for companies to replace dirty industrial equipment with zero-emissions technologies

earthjustice.org

Reposted by Mark Huising

ucdavisnews.bsky.social @ucdavisnews.bsky.social · 6d

A Newly Recognized Pathway Could Protect Diabetics from Hypoglycemia @huisinglab.bsky.social www.ucdavis.edu/news/newly-r...

Newly Recognized Pathway Could Protect Diabetics from Hypoglycemia

A new study by the University of California, Davis, shows how cells work together to avoid a sudden drop in blood sugar. Understanding these feedback loops could improve the lives of people with diabe...

www.ucdavis.edu

Reposted by Mark Huising

UC Davis Egghead @ucdavis-egghead.bsky.social · 6d

New work from @huisinglab.bsky.social at UC Davis shows how delta cells in pancreatic islets dampen insulin production and prevent a sudden drop in blood sugar. It could lead to new ways to help people with diabetes. www.ucdavis.edu/news/newly-r...

Newly Recognized Pathway Could Protect Diabetics from Hypoglycemia

A new study by the University of California, Davis, shows how cells work together to avoid a sudden drop in blood sugar. Understanding these feedback loops could improve the lives of people with diabe...

www.ucdavis.edu

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 8d

please sign SB79

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 12d

@NPR reposting yesterday's cringe victim blaming. In 'bike friendly' Davis 85 people under 19 were injured in collisions around our schools in the last decade. Fortunately no fatalities. All but two collisions involved a car, drivers at fault in most. Educate drivers to wield their cars responsibly.

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 13d

Bike and pedestrian deaths are far worse in the US then almost anywhere else. Places that solved this don't rely on padding and bright colors on people, they plan and design for streets that are safe for pedestrians, bikes and ebikes by engineering out conflicts with cars... do better @npr.org

Reposted by Mark Huising

Melissa Nadia Viviana @resistrebelrevolt.net · 20d

🔥💯 Jon Stewart's prophecy from 2022:

"When a democracy is under threat: comedians are the ones who get sent away first. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to progress. It ain't the pronoun police, it's the Secret Police. It always has been & it always will be."

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks Richard!!

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks Ed!! Appreciate this ;-)

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Understanding these mechanisms of local crosstalk matters, because they break down quickly in diabetes. This failure to communicate between islet cell types makes diabetes worse. 10/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Taken together, our findings explain the coordination between insulin and somatostatin secretion via a combination of paracrine crosstalk and relatively weak electrical connections that facilitate coordination, without constraining the considerable individuality of delta cell Ca2+ behaviors. 9/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Finally, while delta cell calcium activation precedes calcium by beta cells, somatostatin secretion trails insulin. While this initially surprised us, full somatostatin release requires the concurrent activation of calcium by glucose and cAMP in response to the beta cell hormone Urocortin3. 8/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

It also explains why some delta cells are not entrained by beta cells at all, while other delta cells are almost beta cell-like in their calcium behavior. This can be explained by stochastic variation in no/low Cx36 to higher Cx36 connections with the beta cell syncytium. 7/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

A crucial difference between beta and delta cells is that the density of Cx36 on beta/delta membranes is sparse compared to the Cx36 density between beta cells. This allows most delta cells to depolarize independently from beta cells and to still be entrained by beta cells under high glucose. 6/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Paradoxically, when delta cells are entrained by beta cells under high glucose stimulation or direct depolarization, they activate fully 16 seconds quicker, entrainment that we show is Cx36 dependent using delta cell specific Cx36 null mice. 5/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

A major role of gap junctions is to prevent beta cells from depolarizing individually due to electrochemical inertia from synchronizing gap junctions. However, most delta cells are active under basal glucose – indicating that they can depolarize even when their neighboring beta cells do not. 4/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Based on optogenetic experiments, it had been suggested that beta cells and delta cells are connected via gap junctions of similar conductance as those between beta cells. Here we show that it is a little more complicated, and interesting. 3/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

We have known for a long time that insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells and somatostatin secretion from their neighboring delta cells is synchronized and therefore coordinated. Our question was how this coordination is achieved. 2/10

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · 22d

Very proud to see the main thesis work of the intrepid Dr. Mohammad Pourhosseinzadeh come out in @pnas.org today! In this paper, Mohammad assesses how crosstalk between insulin-secreting beta and somatostatin-secreting delta cells in the islet actually happens, in near real-time. A quick thread 1/10

a schematic of pancreatic beta and delta cells that explains how they turn glucose into activation and how these cell types signal to each other via gap junctions and G protein coupled receptors. The image has two stills of islet cells expressing fluorescent sensors for calcium and cAMP and of the same islet cells stained for the presence of the hormones insulin and somatostatin.

Reposted by Mark Huising

Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 24d

Yeah man they ain’t coming back. This is going to be one of the biggest foreign policy blunders of my lifetime, and it’s entirely possible that some guy at ICE ordered it not having any clue what he was doing. This is why we used to leave foreign affairs to sensitive nerds.

Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in
2025.

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · Sep 7

Biking to the pasta Feed of the Davis high school XC team to help feed some of the 150 athletes before their race. Great group of kids and fun event, despite slight delay as one of our bike's chain rattled off due to the terrible condition of the pavement of the once great Davis bike trail network.

A cargo bike with two large pans of pasta and pasta sauce secured with bungee cord. Also, a battery for vehicle to load functionality ;-)

A woman next to an upside down Dutch style 'Opoe' bike laying back her chain that rattled off due to the terrible condition of the local bike trails.

Reposted by Mark Huising

David Roberts @volts.wtf · Sep 7

This matters a lot more than his tweets.

Massive Bay Area transit cuts likely as Newsom backtracks on $750M loan, lawmakers warn

Bay Area lawmakers and transit advocates say Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reneging on a critical $750 million loan will have devastating consequences for BART, Muni and other agencies in the region.

www.sfchronicle.com

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · Sep 5

If your yard stick for success of a society is 'robotaxis' you have completely lost the plot. Not efficient affordable public transit, not universal health care, or a functioning democracy for that matter, no 'robotaxis'. JFC...

The Economist @economist.com · Sep 5

Will the absence of robotaxis in Europe mark the moment its citizens notice how far their continent has fallen behind?

Robotaxis will be the Sputnik Moment for a declining Europe

A slow-motion car crash on Europe’s roads

Reposted by Mark Huising

Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · Sep 3

Canada’s out-of-control wildfire crisis in six charts.

Important new analysis from @nationalobserver.com's @bsaxifrage.bsky.social 👇
www.nationalobserver.com/2025/09/03/a...

Canada’s out-of-control wildfire crisis in six charts

Canadian wildfire has quadrupled since the 1990s. That’s releasing billions of tonnes of CO2. The climate beast is waking up. When will we?

www.nationalobserver.com

Mark Huising @huisinglab.bsky.social · Sep 4

We used to have a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats in our attic, until we excluded them years ago. A handful keep coming back to feed around the house every summer night. This is from just a few weeks - imagine how many insects they devour to produce this much bat shit!

A pile of bat droppings on a brick floor in the corner